Ben Taub retains Level 1 status
Trauma center is 1 of only 2 treating most serious cases in Houston area
Ben Taub Hospital has maintained its Level 1 trauma center designation, avoiding a potentially crippling reduction in trauma services for an already underserved region, officials said Friday.
The trauma center, which serves some 10,000 patients a year, is one of only two adult Level 1 trauma centers in Houston.
Experts recommend at least one trauma center for every million people, suggesting Greater Houston should have as many as six to eight.
The American College of Surgeons, which certifies trauma centers, notified Ben Taub this week that its trauma center’s Level 1 status had been extended through March 2018.
“The loss of the Ben Taub Hospital as a designated Level 1 trauma hospital was unthinkable,” said Darrell Pile, chief executive officer of the South-East Texas Regional Advisory Council, a nonprofit created to help coordinate trauma care in the region.
The ACS had conducted
a routine visit in late 2014 to affirm the hospital was still meeting all the standards of a Level 1 trauma center.
But administrators had taken three operating rooms out of service because they no longer met standards for air exchange or square footage. The rooms had not been updated since the last renovation of the hospital in 1992.
“We knew there were some problems, and before they became clinical quality issues, we took those out of service,” said George Masi, CEO of Harris Health, the nonprofit that operates Ben Taub.
The hospital also had some turnover in its surgery staff around the time of the ACS visit, leaving it with too few surgeons.
In January 2015, the ACS inspection report cited both the operating-room capacity and surgical staffing, and required the hospital to come up with a plan of correction.
Harris Health had earmarked $67 million to build more operating rooms, but a budget shortfall forced the system to reallocate the funds.
The inspectors returned on Nov. 3, and according to Masi, they provided a positive report on the hospital’s progress.
“We had complied with, in every sense of the word, with their recommendations,” he said.
Later that month, Harris County commissioners approved spending $70 million to build the additional operating rooms. The hospital also hired three surgeons.
“Even if the initial reaction came back and said we hadn’t done enough, I think our commitment was we were going to do whatever it took,” said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. “The broader community desperately needs for there to be those two Level 1 trauma centers.”
Harris Health and Memorial Hermann operate the only two adult Level 1 trauma centers in Houston, equipped to handle the most seriously injured patients. When both are full, they must divert cases to other emergency rooms or transfer patients to the Level 1 trauma center at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Texas Children’s Hospital and
Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital operate pediatric Level 1 trauma centers.
The agreement between hospital officials and county commissioners will go before the Harris Health Board of Managers for a vote, most likely within the next month or two. If the board approves, the hospital will begin the renovation project, which is expected to take 32 to 36 months.
The new operating rooms will be built on the second floor. To make room, the hospital has moved a laboratory that took up half the floor and will move outpatient clinics from the other half into the building next door.
Once the clinics are renovated, the second floor will be cleared out and construction of the new operating rooms will begin.